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A Room on Lorelei Street
A Room on Lorelei Street
A Room on Lorelei Street
Audiobook6 hours

A Room on Lorelei Street

Written by Mary E. Pearson

Narrated by Natalie Ross

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

Zoe's arms prickle. She turns, trying to take it all in. The ache inside returns. It is not for her. It is too much. A real room with real floors and walls. A room for sleeping, and reading and dancing and . . . in her imagination she has pictured the room, but she has never pictured herself in it.

Can seventeen-year-old Zoe make it on her own?

A room is not much. It is not arms holding you. Not a kiss on the forehead. Not a packed lunch or a remembered birthday. Just a room. But for seventeen-year-old Zoe, struggling to shed the suffocating responsibility of her alcoholic mother and the controlling guilt of her grandmother, a rented room on Lorelei Street is a fierce grab for control of her own future.

Zoe rents a small room from Opal Keats, an eccentric old lady who has a difficult past of her own, but who chooses to live in the possibility of the future. Zoe tries to find that same possibility in her own future, promising that she will never go crawling back. But with all odds against her, can a seventeen-year-old who only slings hash to make ends meet make it on her own? Zoe struggles with this worry and the guilt of abandoning her mother as she goes to lengths that even she never dreamed she would in order to keep the room on Lorelei Street.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 20, 2010
ISBN9781441805263
A Room on Lorelei Street
Author

Mary E. Pearson

Mary E. Pearson is the international and New York Times bestselling author of the Dance of Thieves duology, the Remnant Chronicles trilogy, the Jenna Fox Chronicles, and more books for young readers. The Courting of Bristol Keats is Mary’s debut novel for adults. She writes from her home in California.

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Reviews for A Room on Lorelei Street

Rating: 3.879999984 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Almost perfect. Beautiful. I can really feel the character's feelings nad see the places and setting the author describes.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have found that I am really getting interested in reading YA lately. And that being said, I really hit the jackpot with this one. This book was such an emotional read that at times I felt like I was almost holding my breath. The main character went through so much in her mere seventeen years of living, and her struggle completely broke my heart.A Room on Lorelei Street takes place in a town called Ruby, Texas. It is a tired, small town full of basically nothing, where Ruby is living with her alcoholic mother as the book begins. Zoe has never really had the chance to be a child. Her father died mysteriously - hinting at a possible suicide, her mother crawled inside a bottle, and her beloved brother is sent to live with her aunt and uncle who have no room for her. Her grandmother is overbearing and manipulative, and Zoe is thrown into a life of being a caretaker to her mother. The author, Mary E. Pearson unfolds this hauntingly beautiful story of Zoe's life with such raw emotion that I will definitely not forget for a long time. Zoe's life is one that no teenager should have to endure. Trying to take care of her mother, while working at the local diner and attending school proves to be more than Zoe can handle one day when a teacher mispronounces her name and Zoe blows a major gasket. It is at this point that Zoe realizes she has to make some changes if she is ever going to survive this life. She comes upon a house on Lorelei Street where she sees a room for rent sign. She keeps stopping by every day just to dream about the room and what it would be like to have someplace to call her own. One day she talks to the owner, and elderly woman named Opal. Opal is quite a character and I found her fast-becoming my favorite. She talks Zoe into taking the room, and the rest of the story is about Zoe's new struggle of how to make it on her own.I can't think of anyone who would not fall in love with this story. I was captivated every second until I closed the back cover. It is a beautiful coming-of-age tale of a teenager's struggle to overcome the hand that life has dealt to her. The book is very well-written, and I can definitely understand why the author won the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award for fiction for this wonderful book. I highly recommend this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Mary E. Pearson is the author of The Adoration of Jenna Fox, which is one of my favorite books.This book is right on the mark regarding a child of an alcoholic and the emotions as a result of a highly dysfunctional adult-- the guilt, the anger, the abandonment, the overwhelming struggle of sadness. Writing with this depth of power and knowledge is difficult to portray without experience, and therefore I believe the author might have real life experience regarding this complicated issue.When seventeen year old Zoe simply can no longer accept the terrible life of enabling and taking care of her alcoholic mother, somehow she finds the courage to rent "a room of her own."Both mother and father were alcoholics. When her father dies, her mother spins more and more out of control. Responsible for her little brother, Zoe's heart aches when he is taken away and raised by family members who want him, but claim there is no room for her. Left behind, Zoe's grandmother demands that Zoe be responsible for Zoe's mother.The grandmother is a real piece of work -- a manipulator, a user and abuser. Emotionally trying to thwart Zoe's independence, Zoe remains strong.This is a wonderful story of hope, of struggle and of courage. Zoe longed for things many children take for granted. She desperately wanted not to pay the bills for her mother. She wanted a mother who could go to work and function. She wanted a parent to attend school functions. She wanted someone to love her, to listen to her rather than self absorption and neglect.Zoe is strong. She is a survivor. I loved and related to Zoe.This is well written and highly recommended!Five Stars
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A young woman saddled with acting as caretaker for her alcoholic mother struggles to create a place and life of her own in a rented room.Zoe may only be seventeen, but she is old before her time. Having long ago assumed the role of parent for her fading, but still pretty mother, she struggles with wanting to be free of the responsibility and her need to make sure her mom is O.K. Coupled with her invisibility to other family members and guilt about her father's death, Zoe feels the need to make herself seen. This leads to self-destructive behaviors (like smoking and sleeping around) and impulsive actions when things get to be too much. One such action is renting a room from a friendly eccentric, which Zoe sees as a haven. However, it's hard for a seventeen year old with a part time job to live on her own, and bad decisions soon find Zoe broke and desperate.This book is very beautifully written. Zoe's voice is authentic, and the situation she finds herself in is heartbreakingly realistic. My main problem with this book is how predictable it was. I didn't feel surprised or shocked by any of Zoe's choices or the situation she found herself in; instead, there was just a sense of "it figures". As far as Teen Problem Novels go, you could do much worse, but don't spend a lot of time looking for novelty here.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Zo—eeeee has an alcoholic mother who forgets a lot of little details, like paying rent. “A real room with real floors and walls. A room for sleeping and reading and dancing and…in her imaginations she has pictured the room, but she has never seen herself in it.” (p. 22). Zoe is forced to deal with details. She pays the bills. She takes care of the car registration. She deals with the people who haven’t been paid. And she is tired of being the adult. When Zoe decides to rent a room of her own, “She pauses, startled, but absorbed in the simple sensation of her feet on a smooth, clean floor. She looks around the room. Is it really hers? Clean. Empty of past. She sits on the window seat and props her feet on a lavender pillow. Before laundry, before anything, she needs to sit. She needs to be. Just be. She closes her eyes, leaning back against the alcove. Zoe. Zoe listening to evening chirps through an open window. Zoe fingering a golden tassel. Zoe tasting space. Zoe owning the room.” (p. 113). Zoe quickly discovers, however, that distancing herself physically from her family does NOT distance her emotionally and now she has rent to pay on top of all her emotional luggage. Pearson’s book sings. Its exquisite language paints rooms and characters with vivid three-dimensional colors making it difficult to believe that we are reading fiction. A Room on Lorelei Street is a must buy for sophisticated high school readers and one of my early favorites for Printz consideration.